I went to Walmart after work (only grocery store within 15 miles of my house). The purest white grape I could find was juicy juice brand. It contains as follows: apple juice from concentrate, white grape juice from concentrate, and "less than .5% of natural flavors, citric acid and acsorbic acid. Will this work for topping off?

I went to Walmart after work (only grocery store within 15 miles of my house). The purest white grape I could find was juicy juice brand. It contains as follows: apple juice from concentrate, white grape juice from concentrate, and "less than .5% of natural flavors, citric acid and acsorbic acid. Will this work for topping off?

Thanks for your patience with me guys!
Will

I would check freezer section for the 11oz'ish cans of juice concentrate. You will find yourself keeping an assortment stashed in freezer. I have not used JJ, but it should be fine for topping up.

Checked my gravity today and it's already down to 1.000 (less than 1.003 at least, "head" around hydrometer). Did I screw something up? Yeast has been in 8 days

Nope, you are doing great. It is quite common for that to occur. Check it in another three days, to see if it drops below 1.000, as that is even more common. Some yeasts, as you will discover, are rapid fermenters, while others may take a month to drop the last ten-twenty points. So many variables like original gravity, nutrients and temp.
You may find it useful to keep a record of the yeast, the fruit, the starting SG and how many days until it hit a certain SG, along with must temperature and if you did something to control the temp(heater vs chiller). I even include the actual date because temperature deviation, if that occurs, can impact things, ie tracking based on seasons.
Keep up the good work, in the summer you should be sipping on strawberry wine!

Sara, thank you again for your help and optimism! My air lock is starting to slow down, good signs of things to come! If my first real attempt is successful I will be way more motivated to try something else!

Ok, so a few more random questions, figure I'll post here instead of making a new thread.

The strawberry is now in an airlocked carboy. Slowly bubbling still (maybe once every 30-45 seconds). I want to check the SG, but I am afraid to pull the airlock, as it's going to take a while to build up enough CO2 to purge the air out.

Am I being too careful?

How long should I leave it in the carboy (plastic...)? Should I get a glass carboy? (finally found a fairly close home brew shop that has glass and better bottles)?